Dominican Sisters of St Joseph

Better to illuminate than merely to shine, to deliver to others contemplated truths than merely to contemplate.- St Thomas Aquinas, O.P.

Come to the Banquet

Oct 13, 2017
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In today’s gospel[1] we have the parable of the wedding feast. Everyone likes to be invited to a feast, especially a wedding feast. It is a joyous occasion, a time to celebrate with a meal. “Come to the wedding.”[2]

However, in this parable not everyone appreciates the invitation, nor considers how much trouble the King (God the Father) has gone to prepare a lavish feast. We hear that his servants are “maltreated” and then killed.[3]

In Jesus’ time there would be first an invitation to say that some special event was going to take place. Then on the day, or just before it, there would be an aide-mémoire to announce that all was ready, the day had come![4] The sequence of the invitations parallels to “God’s declaration of truth concerning His Kingdom and His Son – first to Israel and then to the Gentile nations.”[5] The invitation is to all.

However, as we hear in this Gospel passage there is one person who does not have the correct attire for the Wedding Feast. “How did you get in here, my friend, without a wedding garment.?”[6] The King is angry. He always provides the proper attire for each of each one of his guests. How could this man have refused his generous offer? We can too feel a bit irate at this poor individual who is singled out.

However, St. Augustine throws light on this. “What is the wedding garment that the Gospel talks about…that garment is something that only the good have, those who are to participate in the feast. The apostle Paul tells us ‘What we are aiming at…is the love that springs from a pure heart, a good conscience, and sincere faith.’ (1 Tim.1:5). That is the wedding garment.[7]

We are invited to the Feast, the banquet of Holy Communion. God the Father provides the banquet, Jesus his Only Son. Let each one of us, so-to-speak approach the altar rails having the right dispositions. Knowing, that we are frail but in the sure confidence that the Father always prepares a lavish Feast that will sustain us and which will lead each one of us to the Banquet unending.